Volume 6, Chapter 6: The Lovely Daily Life of an Elementary Schooler, Part 2
Born in the underground tunnels of Tokyo, was a [Presence] that embodied the [Ambition] of [Power].
Politicians of the country who had discovered the [Presence] had, with the help of the religious organisation [Oyama], built a shrine to surround it in the underground tunnels, and through the [Miko], channeled that [Power]for many years for their use. That [Presence] that had been sleeping all this time, suddenly awoke a few years ago.
That thing was like a fearful child.
It didn"t know what there was to fear, but even though it was said to have awakened, it still couldn"t communicate with anyone but the [Shrine Maiden], and the shrine maiden had been gnawed at by bearing the burden of the spirit.
“The third Shrine Maiden has collapsed.”
In a room reminiscent of the European-style buildings of the Taisho period (1912-1926), an old man dressed in a haori-hakama in subdued hues spoke in a tired voice to another old man wearing a tailored suit.
“……Again. Only four years have pa.s.sed since it awoke.”
“No wonder…… even if you say it can talk, the other party isn"t a "human". Children who can accept the ma.s.sive amounts of information that aren"t even words aren"t common.”
“…… What"s the status of that shrine maiden?”
“She"s alive. But, given that she"s mentally unstable now, she"s unusable.”
“Really……”
Three of the five shrine maidens had collapsed, with only two of them remaining.
When the second person collapsed, they"d confirmed that there was an orphan with the qualities to be a shrine maiden, but amongst the children of the branch families, there wasn"t anyone suitable left.
The five shrine maidens were all between 5 and 13, and the ones that remained were 13 and 11 years old. Because of their age, the two of them were mentally stronger, and were able to tolerate it.
But, the moment they became adults, they would lose their apt.i.tude of being a [Shrine Maiden].
That [Existence] only accepted children, and rejected those that had become adults.
“Why did you wake up……No, what was so terrifying that you woke up?”
“…… Perhaps, it would be the [Evil] that will appear in the country after ten years. And we, in the future, would borrow the power of that [Existence], and use it to seal the [Evil] like we did in the past.”
“Why are you still so afraid if you"ve sealed it?”
“I don"t know. The future time it would be released is "now". It"s frightened because of it.”
“Well…… is that not dangerous?”
“Be a.s.sured. The technique [Twelve Period Hourgla.s.s] isn"t something so weak. We will risk our lives to protect this country.”
The two old men, who headed the political and religious inst.i.tutions of the country, quietly nodded with the determination to fight.
To protect the future of the people living in the country.
“Good evening, Yuuki-kun.”
“…… It seems that you"ve come today.”
Apparently, he"s in an unusual humor.
I made the excuse that I had a cold, I was pretending to have shut myself in my room, and took a leisurely journey to Yuuki-kun"s meeting point.
My power as a Demon was usable, but since my body was that of a weak "human", me using too much Demonic magic power might be the reason I"m not feeling so well. …… Maybe. In a word, it"s like muscle pain……?
But since I"m actually quite tired, let"s end this quickly.
“Here.”
“……Nn, what"s that?”
Looking at the fancy wrapped present I handed him, Yuuki-kun made a strange face.
“I guess it was about time? That your younger brother or sister has been born? I don"t know which one it is, but since it"s a baby I think a stuffed toy is appropriate, right?”
“Ah,…… Aah.”
“Has it not been born yet?”
Oh dear, it seems I"ve made a false start. Is it okay that he accepts this now?
“No, she"s been born…… it"s a sister. …… Subaru.”
“Congratulations~”
What, were you just being embarra.s.sed?
But actually, it"s a complex feeling…… Yuuki-kun wanted to learn the magic of opening a dimensional door from me so that he could return to the world of his previous life.
I didn"t hear his circ.u.mstances, but I could feel the "anger" and "hatred" at the heart of his words. There was something very forlorn…… maybe, he had been murdered.
He wanted to get back to his world and exact his revenge. …… I think that"s the case, but since he was taking his time to gain power and grow, he had a number of "lingering affections" for this world and his heart began to shake.
They"re quite terrible, humans.
“Ah, sorry…… Thanks. Yuzu, please do continue teaching me.”
“Yes yes.”
They sure aren"t upfront about their feelings…… humans.
“As I mentioned before, this is an application of [Summoning Magic]. If you want to open a door that leads to a different world, you will need to know its coordinates, and have the enormous magic power needed to summon creatures from that other world.”
“I know that. Even in my world, [Summoning from Another World] was a national project…… But, it seems that in Yuzu"s world, magic formations had been developed considerably.”
Yuuki-kun muttered as he struggled to practice the [Three-dimensional stacked magic formation] that could effectively produce a summoning gate within a small area.
In Yuuki-kun"s homeworld…… In [Tess], it seems that it was common for them to draw on paper or carve them onto the floor.
Well, that"s the normal way. Normally one wouldn"t think of drawing magic power directly on the air.
“…… Did you remember something, Yuzu?”
“No. Not at all.”
I don"t see that "black cat" around too often these days……
Yuuki-kun seems to be paying a lot of attention to me, and worries about me every now and then. Especially when his heart wavers.
“Does Yuuki-kun hate this world?”
“…… Ahh, I despise it. It was because of humanity"s arrogance that our magic power is this low. Because of them, the spirits sleep, and I was born as a helpless human being.”
So there are no other Demons……
In Yuuki-kun"s tale, it seems like spirits exist to manage souls. Due to the spirits being asleep, it turned out souls that didn"t have enough experience points to be human and should have been born animals were born human.
And because there were no Demons, there were no existences to eat sinful humans. That"s why there was a vicious cycle that would cause humans to keep increasing in number.
“But even then there are good people, you know?”
“Oh yeah…… the transmigration of souls is absurd. Good and bad people are born properly. On the contrary, souls with egos that were too strong would be flicked to another world.”
“Well, then, it"s a good thing that people like Dad-chan and Misa are here then. The ramen was good, no?”
When I smiled sweetly at that, Yuuki-kun stopped practicing the layered magic formation, and made a face like he"d bit on a particularly bitter bug.
“…… It"s about time for me to show the results of my practice. Because Yuzu neglected her meeting yesterday, I absolutely have to return the favor.”
“……hehh”
Yuuki-kun, who had gradually begun to release his magic power, had a slight smile on his mouth.
The results of his practice…… huh.
“…… Would it be better if I were to show it?”
I also released magic powers up to the point that it didn"t burden my body.
Previously, since there was little magic power in this world, I felt like saying that I could do it easily, but since Yuuki-kun invited me to watch, it can"t be helped.
“You won"t die, right?”
“I said that.”
Yuuki-kun opened a hole in s.p.a.ce in his hand and from the s.p.a.ce within took out his sword. …… It wasn"t inside his pants.
“Teach me that too.”
“When I win.”
Is that a promise?
“…[Become ashes]…”
When Yuuki-kun instantly avoided it like flying, the sc.r.a.p metal behind him immediately burnt to ashes.
As expected, it"s probably better to use [Spirit Language], huh. When I ordered things, it was difficult to remember what it should have acted on, but if I only used the "result" and imagined it and put magic power into my words, the effects would appear.
It seems that it"s okay to make some noise in this abandoned factory.
“I felt killing intent!?”
“Eh~…… you avoided it.”
“…… You knave, you mad archmage.”
Yuuki-kun drew a small magic formation in the air, and I smashed it with a big sword enveloped in the light of the [Holy Attribute].
“Wow.”
“Sword of Brilliance!”
The sacred light that stretched a few meters out from the sword swung down, and collided with my magic barriers, getting annihilated while releasing violent sparks.
“Suddenly serious?”
“I guess it works well against evil sorcerers?”
I was a Demon, so it was getting to be too much and I was taking damage.
“Sword of Brilliance…… how Chuunibyou.”
“Shut up.”
And so, the serious training where the partner wasn"t to die started.
Why did it happen? Well, it"s alright. I don"t really worry about it, since I didn"t really seriously go at it.
After about an hour, as I thought that we were making too much commotion, Yuuki-kun suddenly dropped his sword.
“Wait, Yuzu. Someone"s approaching.”
“eh……”
It seems that we"ve made too much of an uproar and someone came to check. I didn"t understand it well, but it seems that Yuuki-kun detected their "presence" somewhere. …… how convenient.
“Shall we withdraw then?”
“Yep …… hold on a minute, it"s fast.”
Is that not a normal human? Stopping our retreat for a moment, we waited, and the person vaulted over the wall of the disused factory and appeared immediately.
“eh…… Onzadkun?”
“Yuzu !?”
Onzadkun, who appeared while sweating and breathing heavily, had a surprised look on his face as he saw me, and grimaced when he saw Yuuki-kun next to me.
“Why is Onzadkun here?”
“That"s my line! What are you doing when your body is so weak? …… Good grief, I was doing exorcisms and came here since there was a commotion.”
That [Contract Chain] connecting Onzadkun to my hand was shining black. Ah~… I see, the fighting was getting pretty serious, so he was called over to [Protect Me].
“Also, Yuzu, why are you with him? And that sword…… you, you"re the black-mask from that time.”
Yuuki-kun did not answer, and only slowly tried to grip his sword. It"s scary as is…… come to mention it, a black mask? He might seriously have Chuunibyou.
“Ah, Yuuki-kun was teaching me magic.”
Onzadkun and Yuuki-kun both looked at me with stunned looks.
Onzadkun"s face had an expression like "what are you saying"…… while Yuuki-kun had a look that was questioning me for lying to him and was thinking over why I was trying to deceive him.
Because…… it"s troublesome.
“S-so, that was……?”
As a consequence of our persuasions and explanations, Onzadkun was convinced in the end.
The explanation was that I had decided to learn magic from Yuuki-kun who was born with a mysterious power, in order to eliminate the weakness of my body, and I lied about my previous life.
He finally believed us when we showed him magic.
“I understand the reason now. So, teach me magic as well.”
“……Haah?”
Yuuki-kun had a shocked voice at Onzadkun who had suddenly spouted this thing.
“Why do I have to teach you?”
“Because you don"t want anyone else to know what you"re doing in the middle of the night? I promised to protect Yuzu. Are you going to protect Yuzu?”
Well… Yuuki-kun unexpectedly diverted his eyes away from Onzadkun"s serious gaze.
“It is necessary for me to become stronger to protect Yuzu. If you teach me, I will also teach you to use "Ki",”
“…… Alright.”
Yuuki-kun also seems to be interested in Onzadkun"s methods. Onzadkun smiled when he heard the answer.
“Thanks. But, I won"t forgive you for killing off the wandering spirits. Why did you do such a thing?”
“If I defeat it, I could absorb some of its power…… It"s nice, I guess, to have such things.”
“What"s that. Game experience points! That spirit-severing sword, teach me that.”
“You can"t do it.”
“What"s the matter, ya stingy?”
“I"m not stingy.”
To absorb the power of the opponents you defeat…… Is that the [Hero"s Secret Art]?
I"ll find out eventually.
Somehow, though, I was left alone and the two of them seem to get along. That"s good…… I guess.
…… Ah, Rotten G.o.d, please go home, there"s nothing for you.
Author"s Notes:
Next time, a Tea Ceremony of Yuzu who advances to the 5th Grade.
I"m trying to get the story to go in a serious direction, and in a sense, Yuuki-kun is the natural enemy of the author like he is to Yuzu.